TCC Online Store- Maybe the world of Transformers Animated is not coming to an end. Maybe it was just our collective downheartedness that we thought this might also be having probelms.

One of the signs of the end of Animated was the cancellation of the Voyager wave with Golfire Grimlock, and Hydrodive Bumblebee. This information came from BigBadToyStore.com.

But wait! The Transformers Collector's Club store has not taken its pre-orders down yet. In fact, it is still advertising the Wave in its pre-order in mastercollector, and also has the items on pre-order and expected to arrive on May 31st on the website.

BBTS wouldn't haven't canceled pre-order unless it
was told, by hasbro, that the toys weren't coming.
The club may simply have not corrected their listing yet.
They have the blackout/wingblade prime wave scheduled for same time.
Without any kind of official word from hasbro, confusion reigns ocer animated's fate.
The club is hopeful that these figs are coming.
BBTS, on other hand, decided to wait for more info before continuing.
We're all in a waiting game.

The club does have more credability than BBTS does (they do have a more direct and much better connection to Hasbro afterall). This is some good news. These to may come out afterall. We're getting Blackout and Rodimus Prime, so I'm happy, and I probably won't get either HD Bumblebee or Golfire Grimlock, even if they do come out. Though I'd be a whole lot happier if Spittor gets a toy (not going to hold my breath for it, but it would be awesome).

Everyone's favorite flamed Prime 'wannabe' will also be getting the Animated toy treatment.

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Aka Rodimus Prime is getting a toy. Also some hints on possible future Cybertronain alt-modes for other characters, like Bumblebee and Ratchet. We also got a hint from one of the other Q&A from that round that theres a possibility they'll be releasing the molds they worked on with Takara for the Henkei Dirge and Thrust figures (in this one)

It's Blackout I'm more psyched about than these two, though more power to fans of them if they do get released after all. Toys of the rest of Animated Season Three's Decepticons would be great, although I'm trying to keep my hopes from soaring too high for fear of ending up terribly disappointed.

I don't believe that HD Bumblebee is cancelled. Why would Hasbro take a figure all the way through the design process, create a NEW mold, and go through the trouble of creating a finished prototype, and then not release a it?

I think that Hasbro will end up releasing HD Bumblebee just so they can make some of their money back on the whole process of creating it in the first place. It remains to be seen if it gets released in the Animated line or the Universe or another line for that matter.

Well, we do know that BBTS never got a preorder up for Animated Arcee and E. Soundwave... and the TFC stated that those two figures were 'pushed back' and 'separated' into different waves. So... it's probable that Goldfire Grimlock and HD BB weren't canceled either, but just pushed back. Overall though... I don't want to get too excited about any news about possible upcoming toys for Animated...

This brings up a point I have been pondering recently, pure wild speculation and all; What if the Animated toy line, and subsequently the show produced to promote the said line, were canceled, not purely due to an 'irrational knee-jerk decision' by Hasbro wanting to focus their product on the movie line, but due to pressure from Hasbro's direct customers (ie large retailers), eager for more movie products and concerned about confusion amongst their end consumers.

Many fans have struggled with the reasoning behind the abandonment of Hasbro's investment in a fairly successful line, could it be due to a vote of no confidence by powers such as the big chains?
I can understand Hasbro themselves considering the repercussions of over saturation, and direct competition between lines, especially in a time of shrinking budgets. But I would have figured there would have been a more 'paced' phase out, to try and recoup more development costs.

I'm clearly not privy to data to support this suggestion, but would like to postulate for the sake of argument. I could see such groups interested in distilling the brand identity, especially considering the success of the movie franchise.

This brings up a point I have been pondering recently, pure wild speculation and all; What if the Animated toy line, and subsequently the show produced to promote the said line, were canceled, not purely due to an 'irrational knee-jerk decision' by Hasbro wanting to focus their product on the movie line, but due to pressure from Hasbro's direct customers (ie large retailers), eager for more movie products and concerned about confusion amongst their end consumers.

Many fans have struggled with the reasoning behind the abandonment of Hasbro's investment in a fairly successful line, could it be due to a vote of no confidence by powers such as the big chains?
I can understand Hasbro themselves considering the repercussions of over saturation, and direct competition between lines, especially in a time of shrinking budgets. But I would have figured there would have been a more 'paced' phase out, to try and recoup more development costs.

I'm clearly not privy to data to support this suggestion, but would like to postulate for the sake of argument. I could see such groups interested in distilling the brand identity, especially considering the success of the movie franchise.

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I actually started a thread on this topic a little while ago. This is probably the most likely scenario. Retailers probably told Hasbro that they wanted to use all of their shelfspace on ROTF and would no longer be supporting the Animated line.

They aren`t cancelled just postponed. As others have said it would be very stupid for Hasbro to tool these molds, to let them die.

Its not the same as ROTLA series 2, TF still has a huge mainstream following

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They did that with other molds in the past. A bunch of the Spychangers had molds but were not used till RID. I think there were a few Beast Machine molds that never got released either. Just because they made a mold doesn't guarantee there will be a release.

They did that with other molds in the past. A bunch of the Spychangers had molds but were not used till RID. I think there were a few Beast Machine molds that never got released either. Just because they made a mold doesn't guarantee there will be a release.

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Well, I think you debunked part of your own arguement there. The G2 Go-Bots did have a few molds that were never used until RID (but they did eventually get used). As for the Beast Machines molds... all the ones that were actually tooled that didn't make it into the BM toyline (Bruticus, Supreme Optimus Primal, Megatron Megabolt, etc.) were all released in RID as mainline or exclusive toys.

As others have theorized, it is entirely possible that the wave G-Grimlock and HDBB were in was cancelled and so BBTS had to cancel pre-orders for that wave, since said wave/assortment no longer exists. The toys themselves were just postponed and worked into a future wave and that's what the Club has their order for.

This brings up a point I have been pondering recently, pure wild speculation and all; What if the Animated toy line, and subsequently the show produced to promote the said line, were canceled, not purely due to an 'irrational knee-jerk decision' by Hasbro wanting to focus their product on the movie line, but due to pressure from Hasbro's direct customers (ie large retailers), eager for more movie products and concerned about confusion amongst their end consumers.

Many fans have struggled with the reasoning behind the abandonment of Hasbro's investment in a fairly successful line, could it be due to a vote of no confidence by powers such as the big chains?
I can understand Hasbro themselves considering the repercussions of over saturation, and direct competition between lines, especially in a time of shrinking budgets. But I would have figured there would have been a more 'paced' phase out, to try and recoup more development costs.

I'm clearly not privy to data to support this suggestion, but would like to postulate for the sake of argument. I could see such groups interested in distilling the brand identity, especially considering the success of the movie franchise.

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that's possible, I also suspect that with the credit crunch, retailers are more financially limited in how much new stock they can acquire than in the past.

Well, right now, until we get official word from Hasbro anything is really nothing more then speculation. Any number of scenarios are possible at this point and somehow I don't think that we're going to know anything concrete about it until Botcon (unless something official gets stated in one of the Hasbro Q&A's before Botcon, but I seriously doubt that for some reason).